


you think that you know my heart (and you probably do)

by amomo



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU, DCU (Comics), Super Sons (Comics), Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Damian's thoughts, Fluff, Gen, I don't know what this is TBH, batfamily, misuse of pancake toppings, with a little bit of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-03
Updated: 2017-10-03
Packaged: 2019-01-08 12:18:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12254250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amomo/pseuds/amomo
Summary: “Damian, aren’t you going to go to bed?” It was a question because by his fifth child Father had learnt demanding one of them to go to bed usually resulted in the opposite because while Damian’s family didn’t have the same blood in their veins they all had one thing in common which was the fact that they all were fueled bypure spite.AKA Damian needs some sleep but starts to think instead.





	you think that you know my heart (and you probably do)

Robots. It was _ always _ robots. Killer robots, at that. But they managed to destroy the last of them and find the creep behind it. Why was it that anyone with a robotics engineering degree and an above average IQ resorted to creating killer robots to terrorize the city?

 

Damian swallowed a yawn as he rolled his shoulder back. His muscles were beginning to feel the soreness that would no doubt intensify come morning. Well technically it was already morning. It was 3:48 AM. The robots had attacked just as the sun was beginning to set which. Damian remember the alert that went out nearly 9 hours ago. It had been a rough 9 hours. He forced himself to stay upright and awake but couldn’t bring himself to actively listen to Father’s conversation with the Kryptonian. 

 

Oh yeah, killer robots terrorizing Gotham City qualified as _ League business _ . Superman and Batman had teamed up to track down the crazy woman who built and sent out all the robots. Which meant Robin and Superboy were stuck on civilian duty. Making sure the citizens of Gotham didn’t get sliced in half by a mechanical arm was necessary, but  _ oh-so-boring _ job.

 

They did get to beat the crap out of a lot of robots in the end though. Something Damian’s boredom was grateful for but his muscles...not so much.

 

Damian stifled another yawn and adjusted his position on the med bay. He hadn’t needed anything too serious; just a few bandages, and ice pack, and okay  _ five _ stitches on his forearm, Grayson, nothing the fret over. Alfred didn’t even comment on his injuries. Just stitched him up and offered him some hot tea, which Damian had gratefully accepted. All of them had come out relatively unscathed. Grayson required a few ice pack for a nasty bruise on his jaw, Drake’s wrist had been minorly sprained, Thomas had a split lip and numerous bruises, Brown seemed to favor her right leg and Cain needed some bandages on her thigh where on of the robots managed to slice her. Damian hadn’t seen Todd all night, he didn’t even know if he was _ there _ . 

 

Damian looked around the Cave; all his siblings seemed to have filed out. Grayson had declared he was going to sleep first, bid everyone goodnight, and ruffled Damian’s hair on the way out. Thomas followed him soon after. Brown dragged both Cain and Drake upstairs declaring someone owed her some snacks after a night of hard work. Damian had stayed though. He would wait until Superman and Father finished discussing whatever they were about the attack and watch as the two aliens would head back to Metropolis. 

 

Speaking of, Damian looked to his right where Jon was sitting, struggling to keep his eyes open. Damian was too but he’d never make it  _ so obvious _ that he was tired. Jon, of course, had no injuries. Only a few tears in his suit. He had been uncharacteristically quiet since they headed back to the Batcave, fatigue no doubt taking over. Even half-Kryptonian children needed sleep. 

 

Damian stared back over to where his Father was, cowl down, nodding thoughtfully at something Kent had said. He felt a weight lift from the bed Jon and he were sitting on. Looking over he saw Jon hop off the bed and sluggishly walk over to where Father and Kent were. Neither of them seemed to notice him until he tugged on Kent’s cape. 

“Can we go  _ home _ now?” The childish whining of his child seemed to grab Kent’s attention. He chuckled and nodded. 

 

“Yeah, it’s been a long night,” turning his attention back to Father, “We’ll complete the report before the next meeting.” Father nodded his head in confirmation.

 

“I’ll do some more digging into where the supplies came from.” 

 

“Get some sleep first, Bruce.” Kent gave Father the same look  _ Father  _ gave  _ Drake _ when he was on his fourth cup of coffee past midnight and Father rolled his eyes and so did Damian but not because of Kent but because his Father was a giant _ hypocrite _ . 

 

“Sure, Clark.” That was rather similar to Drake’s responses to Father’s insistence he required sleep. And yet Father wondered why his children were so difficult to control? Kent shook his head before scooping up Jon who looked like he was ready to pass out. He bid the two of them goodnight and Damian felt annoyed at Jon because he spent all this time down here  _ not sleeping _ so he could say goodbye and the moron had fallen asleep without so much as a  _ ‘later, Damian!’ _ and was being carried off by his father.

 

Damian wasn’t sure which part of all of that annoyed him the most. 

 

Even after Father has showered and changed out of his suit, Damian found himself still sitting on the medical bed where he was before. Father looked up at him surprised. 

 

“Damian, aren’t you going to go to bed?” It was a question because by his fifth child Father had learnt demanding one of them to go to bed usually resulted in the opposite because while Damian’s family didn’t have the same blood in their veins they all had one thing in common which was the fact that they all were fueled by  _ pure spite.  _

 

Damian looked up at his Father and simply blinked owlishly at him for a moment before regaining his posture. 

 

“Yes, I was about to.” Father raised an eyebrow at him as if to say  _ ‘then why are you still sitting here?’ _

 

But Damian couldn’t respond because he couldn’t just  _ tell him _ why he hadn’t gotten up to go to bed. He probably should have gone up ages ago with Grayson or Thomas or maybe he should have joined Brown, Cain, and Drake in whatever monstrous midnight snack the three of them no doubtedly concocted, it would have been ridiculously high in sugar and Alfred would most definitely not approve but also not say anything because they all had a rough night but not so rough that they were ignoring each other, but he didn’t go up with them but his siblings didn’t ask either but of course no one would say anything if he had decided to join them, just like no one was asking where Todd was tonight or of he was even _ in _ Gotham, but Damian didn’t go upstairs to sleep or eat instead he stayed downstairs because he wanted to say goodbye to Jon for some reason, despite him being childish and immature Jon was his  _ friend _ and maybe Damian enjoyed his company because he  _ was _ childish and immature, but Jon was tired and had fallen asleep and didn’t say goodbye so Damian has stayed down in the Cave for  _ no good reason _ and so he couldn’t  tell Father that he didn’t know why he was still downstairs but maybe it was because Jon’s father listened to him and held him and carried him and probably would go home and tuck Jon into bed and say _ ‘I love you _ ’ to him and then again in the morning because in Jon’s world declaring your love for your family wasn’t a rare or momentous occasion it was normal and natural and Jon would probably hear it from his father  _ and _ mother for the rest of his life and wouldn’t ever have to fight for or prove that he was _ worthy _ of being loved by his _ own family _ , all while Father hadn’t even said so much as a ‘ _ good job Damian _ ’.

 

But none of this came out. Instead, in his exhausted state, Damian could only manage to hold himself together to stop from collapsing right there and then. Father stares at him a moment longer. And then picks up Damian as if he were a sack of flour or a small child or  _ Jon _ and wordlessly carries him upstairs, lays him in bed. Damian’s eyes have forcefully closed at this time but he does feel the most feather-light of kisses on his forehead.

 

The next day, no one is awake before noon. So Alfred makes breakfast for lunch and everyone sits in the dining room where the curtains are drawn back, letting in the daylight. Grayson puts an unhealthy amount of Nutella on his pancakes while Drake is attempting to beg Father to allow him a cup of coffee but Father blatantly refuses and Brown says Drake needs to eat more and Damian agrees not in caring-for-Drake way but because Drake is almost comically thin and he’ll probably collapse in mid-battle and get someone killed because Drake is a jerk like that. Cain is stealing bacon off of Thomas’ plate while Thomas is distracted by Grayson shoving half his pancake in his mouth at once, which is admittedly quite impressive. Todd is here but no one knows when he showed up except for maybe Alfred but Damian can’t ask because it will look as if he _ missed him _ . Todd laughs at Grayson’s chocolate-smeared face and Grayson grins at him and steals the syrup from him which results in them wrestling at the table which causes Father to berate them and then Todd squirts maple syrup right onto Father’s face and smiles at him with a fake apology on his lips. Drake and Brown begin to laugh, Cain smiles, Grayson attempts to lick the syrup off of Father’s face to which Brown squeals  _ ‘gross!’ _ and great that’s  _ twice _ now Damian has agreed with her in one day. Thomas announces that they are all  _ weird as heck _ and Alfred appears and shoots a disapproving glare at them all. Father catches Damian’s eyes and the look he conveys is somewhere between ‘ _ thank you for being the only one behaving _ ’ and  _ ‘I’m glad you’re all here with me _ ’ and Damian hides his smile as he sips his orange juice, remembering to call Jon later to go over everything he did wrong yesterday because Damian never got the chance this morning and Jon really needs to be more disciplined if he wants the be a better superhero. 

 

Damian briefly wonders what Jon’s family had for breakfast, but it’s not bitter or sad as it would have been a day before and Damian decides he can live with that because his family is far from normal and even further from being functional but Jon’s dad is an alien so really the Waynes should be more normal but life is what it is and Damian decides that rolling his eyes at his siblings and Brown, who slept in  _ Drake’s room _ but Father said nothing of it which means he either doesn’t know or is too preoccupied to care, while they argue about what tastes better on pancakes. 

(Damian finds himself fond of whipped cream and strawberries and okay so maybe he had Jon to thank for that but whatever.)

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this for Damian Wayne Week on tumblr but then I couldn't stop...so please validate me :)


End file.
